Control device for electrical musical instruments



March 16, 1937 N LANGER 2,@74,151 Q CONTROL DEVICE FOR ELECTRICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Original Filed July 30, 1932 WM W INVENTOR' Patented Mar. 16, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CONTROL DEVICE FOR ELECTRICAL MUSI- CAL INSTRUMENTS Original application July 30, 1932, Serial No. 626,456. Divided and this application March 4,

1935, Serial No. 9,205. September 24, 1932 3 Claims.

The present invention relates to a control device for electrical musical instruments and more particularly to a control device which permits control of the volume of the sound emitted by the musical instrument and at the same time is capable of producing difierent sound effects by only one hand of the operator.

The present application is a division of my co-pending application Ser. No. 626,456 filed July 30, 1932 now Patent No. 1,993,890, granted March 12, 1935. The aforesaid application broadly discloses a circuit for producing various sound effects by means of electrical oscillations obtained by glow-discharge lamp oscillators.- The said copending application also discloses a circuit by means of which it is possibleto selectively and manually produce a tremolo effect and a sound effect called the banjo effect by rapidly opening and closing one or a plurality of contacts, and a potentiometer for controlling the output of the circuit.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a control device for electrical musical instruments which is capable of controlling the 25 position of the slide arm of a volume control potentiometer and is simultaneously adapted to rapidly open and to close one or more electrical contacts by only one hand of the operator.

It is another objectv of the present invention to 30 provide a control device capable of simple and simultaneous control of the output of the electrical musical instrument and of production of the tremolo or banjo effects.

The invention also contemplates a control de- 35 vice which is simple in construction and is easily operated.

Other and further objects and advantages oi the present invention will appear from the following description taken in conjunction with the 40 accompanying drawing in which,

Fig. 1 is a longitudina'lsectional view of the control device embodying 'the principles of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a top elevational view of the device 45 shown in Fig. 1. M

Generally speaking according to the principles of my invention 1 provide a control arm which d is movable in twodirections said directions being preferably vertical to each other. A simple way 50 of obtaining this double movability is for example to pivot the arm at one end and in addition to make same partly or completely of a resilient material so that due to its resiliency the lever will be capable of small lateral displace- 55 ments. The movement of the control arm or In Hungary and Canada lever around the pivot may be used to associate same with the slide arm of a volume control potentiometer whereas the small lateral displacement of the arm may be used to open and to close contacts arranged at both sides of the control arm. It will be noted that in this manner it is possible to simultaneously control two or even more different and independent circuits with only one hand of the operator.

The invention will now be more fully explained reference being made to Figures 1 and 2 of the drawing.

A body member C made of a non-conducting material has a slot provided therein through which a control lever A bearing knob B is protruding. A resistance element P is held in position by means of a bracket or frame F secured to said body member. The control lever A is pivoted at Q and is associated with a slide arm E sliding over surface of the resistance element F. It is to be noted that control arm A is electrically insulated from the slide arm E by means of an intermediate insulating piece O. The control lever or arm at least in part is made of a resilient and flexible material, for example of a flat strip of spring steel which permits a little movement of the lever A perpendicularly to its movement around pivot Q. A pair of contact strips or contacts d-I and d-Z are arranged in slot D at both sides of the control lever A which is capable of alternately making electrical contact with one of them at a time when said control lever is laterally displaced.

From the preceding description the operation of my control device will be readily understood by those skilled in the art. First of all, it is easily seen that the control arm is capable of displacement in two directionswhioh are perpendicular one to the other, to wit: the control arm may be moved in the direction of the slot D thereby changing the position of slide arm E on the resistance element, and it may be also slightly displaced laterally to make contact with one of the contact strips d--l and (1-2. The two possible displacements may be used to control two inde pendent electrical circuits, the movement in the direction of the slot being used for controlling the output of the electrical musical instrument by varying the position of slide arm E on the resistance element P, whereas the movement of the control arm perpendicular to the aforesaid movement may be used to produce a tremolo or banjo effect by rapidly connecting and disconnecting a condenser to the circuit of the electrical musical instrument or by rapidly opening and closing a contact in the main circuit of the electrical musical instrument as this has been more fully explained in my co-pending application Ser. No.

626,456. Since very little lateral displacement of the control lever A is needed to close contacts 11-! and d2 it is easily possible to obtain fast opening and closing of said contacts. It is to be observed that the control device according to the principles of the present invention permits to control the two electrical circuits referred to above either simultaneously or separately with only one hand of the operator and thereby provides a practical solution of the problem of electrically simulating the musical eifect of different instruments, for example that of the stringed instruments.

Although I have described my invention in connection with a practical embodiment thereof, many variations and modifications may be resorted to by those skilled in the art without departing from the principles of the present invention. I consider all these variations and modifications as within the true spirit and scope of my invention as disclosed in the present description and defined by the appended claims.

I claim 1. A manually operated control device for electrical musical instruments which comprises a resistance element, a pivoted conducting lever slidably engaging said resistance element, a conducttimes per second in a direction vertical'to said plates whereby the position of said lever on said resistance element may be adjusted by displacing said handle in the aforesaid direction and said contact plates may be rapidly and alternately contacted by simultaneously reciprocating said handle in the latter direction. 2. A manually operated control device for electrical musical instruments which comprises a pivoted bell crank lever, a pivoting pin for said lever, a sliding contact on one end of said lever, a control handle attached to the other end of said lever and insulated therefrom, a resistance element engaged by said sliding contact, and a con-' tact plate located at each side of said handle, said handle being constituted at least in part of a flat strip of resilient metal having great rigidity in a plane vertical to said pivoting pin and capable of being readily deflected and reciprocated several times per second in a direction parallel to said pin whereby the position of said sliding contact on said resistance element may be adjusted by turning said handle around said pivoting pin, and simultaneously with but independently from this displacement said contact plates may be alternately engaged by rapid reciprocation of said control handle in the direction of said pivoting pin.

3. A manually operated control device for electrical musical instruments which comprises a nonconducting body member having a longitudinal slottherein, a bell crank lever pivoted in a pin mounted within said body member, a sliding contact integral with one end of said lever, a conducting control handle insulatedly attached to the other end of said lever and protruding through said longitudinal slot, a resistance element engaged by said sliding contact, and a contact plate mounted on each longitudinal side of said slot, i

said control handle being constituted at least in part of a fiat strip of resilient metal having great rigidity in the direction of said slot and capable of being readily deflected and reciprocated several times per second in a direction vertical to that of said slot whereby the position of said sliding contacton said resistance element may be adjusted by displacing said handle in the direction of said slot and simultaneously with but independently from this displacement said contact plates may be alternately engaged by rapid reciprocation of said control handle in the direction across said slot.

-- NICHOLAS LANGER. 

